Kensington Swan's view on aspects of the construction industry

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The Supreme Court recently released its long awaited decision in relation to the collapse of the Southland Stadium. Background From 1999 to 2000, the Southland Indoor Leisure Centre Charitable Trust (the Trust) had a stadium built to provide indoor sporting and recreational facilities. Remedial work to the roof carried out in 2000 was defective and…

Following concerns with the use of aluminium composite cladding in Australia, on 5 September the Senate Economics References Committee released its interim report on aluminium composite cladding as part of the broader non-conforming building product inquiry. The report is substantive (100 pages) and the recommendations made are summarized as follows: The Commonwealth Government urgently implement a…

This blog post is written by Ariana Stuart, a Senior Associate in Kensington Swan’s Construction and Major Projects team. Yet another report has been released considering the current construction ‘boom’. MBIE has released its National Construction Pipeline Report 2017 forecasting building and construction activity. Of note, is that MBIE has forecast the construction boom to…

The Belt and Road Initiative (B&R, OBOR, 一带一路), announced by President Xi Jinping in late 2013, is China’s most ambitious development strategy. It aims to create new economic zones based around the ancient Silk Road trade route overland (the belt) and across the sea (the road). China expects to trade more than US$2.5 trillion a…

Election year budgets have a tendency to be the most expenditure focused of the triennium, often labelled as ‘lolly scrambles’ or ‘vote buying’, and ever since Treasury released the Budget Policy Statement in December it’s been clear Budget 2017 will be no different. As the Prime Minister put it in his pre-budget speech ‘A growing economy…

The Arbitration Amendment Bill 2017 has passed its first reading and is currently before select committee. The Bill is a private member’s Bill introduced by National MP Paul Foster-Bell. It is intended to clarify the law of arbitration, respond to recent cases, and make New Zealand conform more closely to international arbitration standards. The Bill…

While the construction market is booming, so are the costs of construction, and the cracks are starting to show. Last week, yet another Auckland building company, Point to Point Holdings was put into liquidation, leaving 132 homeowners and subcontractors $1.7 million out of pocket. The company has blamed rising costs of building for its downfall. According…

Recently some of New Zealand’s biggest construction firms have announced their commitment to an agreement standardizing their approach to health and safety onsite. Construction is one of New Zealand’s biggest industries, but it also has a high worker injury rate and the second highest rate of work site fatalities. The hope is that standardizing health…

Prime Minister Bill English last week announced the finalised Cabinet ministers to be taken into the September elections. As previously signalled by the Prime Minister it is a narrowly focused reshuffle, to avoid the ‘distraction’ of major changes to the Cabinet structure prior to the election. Accordingly there is no significant change in direction for…

Last Friday, the government released its report on the economic impact of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. The report which was commissioned by the Ministries of Transport and of Business Innovation and Employment, looks at the lingering effects of the fatal 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck the South Island shortly after midnight on 14 November 2016.…